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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Muslims vs. Homosexuals: Comparative Victimology

Two primary schools have withdrawn storybooks about same-sex relationships after objections from Muslim parents.

Up to 90 gathered at the schools to complain about the books which are aimed at pupils as young as five.

One story, titled King & King, is a fairytale about a prince who turns down three princesses before marrying one of their brothers.

Another named And Tango Makes Three features two male penguins who fall in love at a New York zoo.

Bristol City Council said the two schools had been using the books to ensure they complied with gay rights laws which came into force last April.

They were intended to help prevent homophobic bullying, it said.

The “homophobic bullying” business is a very transparent pretext, of course. Students get bullied for all kinds of reasons: because they are fat, because they have glasses, because the are Christians (we’ve known of this happening) and because they are perceived as homosexual.

While an anti-bullying campaign to reduce all bullying sounds like a dandy idea (assuming it actually has any effect), what we have here is a campaign to teach that homosexuality is perfectly normal and healthy, and further than anybody who has any reservations about that is a “homophobe.”

But the council has since removed the books from Easton Primary School and Bannerman Road Community School, both in Bristol.

A book and DVD titled That’s a Family!, which teaches children about different family set-ups including gay or lesbian parents, has also been withdrawn.

The decision was made to enable the schools to “operate safely” after parents voiced their concerns at meetings.

Members of the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society said parents were upset at the lack of consultation over the use of the materials.

Farooq Siddique, community development officer for the society and a governor at Bannerman Road, said there were also concerns about whether the stories were appropriate for young children.

“The main issue was there was a total lack of consultation with parents,” he said.

“The schools refused to deal with the parents, and were completely authoritarian.

“The agenda was to reduce homophobic bullying and all the parents said they were not against that side of it, but families were saying to us ‘our child is coming home and talking about same-sex relationships, when we haven’t even talked about heterosexual relationships with them yet’.

“They don’t do sex education until Year Six and at least there you have got the option of withdrawing the children.

“But here you don’t have that option apparently. You can’t withdraw because it is no particular lesson they are used in.”

He added: “In Islam homosexual relationships are not acceptable, as they are not in Christianity and many other religions but the main issue is that they didn’t bother to consult with parents.”

The internal logical contradictions of the Left on display. Apparently, when Christians object to books aimed at teaching preschoolers to idolize a sexual malfunction, we are blackhearted villains, but when Muslims object to sodomy, they must be heeded with grave deliberation. I am not sure how the pious totem pole of victimology goes, but apparently multi-culturalism trumps gay tolerance.